Big changes are coming to World of Warcraft’s Arenas that will make participating more convenient and competitive than ever before, and some of those changes may begin appearing on the PTR very soon.

Today, competition is limited to the realms within your Battlegroup, and your ability to participate in the Arena system requires having a static team with friends on the same realm. In the upcoming Patch 5.4, we’re building on technological improvements we’ve made over time (such as region-wide matchmaking) to expand the pool of competitors and improve the Arena experience for all World of Warcraft players.

One of the first things you’ll notice in Patch 5.4 is that you’ll no longer need to join or create an Arena team to compete. Instead, queuing will work much as it does for Rated Battlegrounds: you can queue for an Arena battle in a party of the appropriate size (still 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5), and your opponents will be selected based on the average Match Making Rating of your party.

For the most part, the mechanics of Arena will remain the same. You’ll still gain and lose personal rating based on your wins and losses, though your Conquest Point cap will now be based on your Personal Rating. The rating requirements to purchase items will also be based on your Personal Rating.

The change will confer a few advantages over the old static-team-based system:

You’ll no longer need to worry about invitations, joining, or leaving an Arena team. Now you can play with who you want, when you want.

You’ll be able to join a cross-realm group and queue for Arena matches with friends from other realms.

The Arena ladder will no longer be sorted according to Battlegroup. Just like Rated Battlegrounds and normal Battlegrounds, now all Arenas will be region-wide. You’ll be competing with a field of opponents that includes every Arena player in your region.

As before, at the end of an Arena season, the top players will still earn titles and mounts.

We’re excited for these changes, and we’re eagerly looking forward to hearing your feedback. Please join us on the PTR when these updates go live to check them out for yourself.

Patch 5.4 Official Notes Update

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

GeneralRedesigned Arena System

Players no longer need to create or join an Arena team to compete.

Similar to the Rated Battleground system, players in a party of the appropriate size (cross-realm groups are supported) may queue for an Arena bracket of the same size (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5).

Each player will have a personal rating that increase or decrease based on victories and defeats against other rated opponents. Opponents will be selected based on the average Match Making Rating of the party.

Conquest cap, requirements on gear and enchantments will be based on the player's personal rating.

The Arena ladder will no longer be sorted according to Battlegroup. Just like Rated Battlegrounds and normal Battlegrounds, all Arenas will now be region-wide!

At the end of an Arena season, the top players in a region will still earn titles and mounts.

For more details about the change to Arenas, please see the blog titled: Patch 5.4 Arena Update.

Classes

Area knockback effects now all share a diminishing return category. After a player has been moved by one of these spells, the player will be immune for 10 seconds. This new category applies to: Fellash, Gorefiend’s Grasp, Glyph of Explosive Trap, Thunderstorm, Typhoon, Ursol’s Vortex, and Whiplash.

Holy: When the Paladin or their Beacon of Light target falls below 30% health, that target gains a Sacred Shield absorbing damage equal to 30% of their maximum health. Sacred Shield can only occur once every 2 minutes.

Protection, Retribution: When the Paladin falls below 30% health, they gain a Sacred Shield absorbing damage equal to 30% of their maximum health. Sacred Shield can only occur once every 2 minutes.

While some of these changes are nice; the change to JP to Honor conversion is terrible. The JP's I accumulate on my main running heroics will in no way benefit me with purchasing the epics PvE items that can now be purchased with JP's. For years I have used this for buying honor PvP gear and now it's more tedious. I do BG's, PvP dailies, etc. But this allowed me to work towards PvP gear (some for current PvP and some for transmog) while also working towards the PvE side of things (which I mostly play). I see no reason for them to make this change.

While some of these changes are nice; the change to JP to Honor conversion is terrible. The JP's I accumulate on my main running heroics will in no way benefit me with purchasing the epics PvE items that can now be purchased with JP's. For years I have used this for buying honor PvP gear and now it's more tedious. I do BG's, PvP dailies, etc. But this allowed me to work towards PvP gear (some for current PvP and some for transmog) while also working towards the PvE side of things (which I mostly play). I see no reason for them to make this change.

I see a reason.

I'm guessing they saw that a lot of people were doing 5-mans just for pvp gear instead of doing BGs.

They probably want you to gear for PVP mostly through PVP instances and not PVE instances.

I'm guessing they saw that a lot of people were doing 5-mans just for pvp gear instead of doing BGs.

They probably want you to gear for PVP mostly through PVP instances and not PVE instances.

Feel free to disagree, but it at least makes some sense.

Then remove the conversion all together if that's how it is supposed to be.

I get what you're saying. But there's really no need to change it. It's still not as efficient as doing BG's...it's just an added bonus to running heroics for valor 6 months after you no longer need anything from them but valor. Why remove the added bonus or make it more difficult to attain? It just takes a little of the fun away from the game.

While some of these changes are nice; the change to JP to Honor conversion is terrible. The JP's I accumulate on my main running heroics will in no way benefit me with purchasing the epics PvE items that can now be purchased with JP's. For years I have used this for buying honor PvP gear and now it's more tedious. I do BG's, PvP dailies, etc. But this allowed me to work towards PvP gear (some for current PvP and some for transmog) while also working towards the PvE side of things (which I mostly play). I see no reason for them to make this change.

The reason is simple, right now is easier to run 5mans to get pvp gear than to actually do PVP. So this change doesnt completely negate you from doing PVE for PVP gear, but the rate in which you would receive Honor will be better in BGS (depending on how much you win obv).

Its not rocket science. Yes it is currently more efficient to run 5man over pugged Bgs. The convertiion rate is too low. You should be encouraged to do PVP to get PVP gear, the PVE convertion should just be a bonus, not the easiest way. Its more than logical.

Was the arena team thing keeping people from playing with their friends? I thought it was because some people didn't want to screw up their ratings.

Mix of too, A lot of people didnt want to grp up with other people because of thier Team rateing. Other people didnt have the chance to play with some of thier friends because they were on another realm. These changes basicly eradicate those issues. Like it says you can play with whoever you want when ever you want without your ''team'' rateing going to shit because you left the team or your teamate left. Its all personal Rateing.

Unless they make an option to reset your rating this is a terrible change IMO, people are not going to want to run with lower exp friends cause they don't want to ruin their personal rating or MMR or even ratio, people are just like that, and I see this as a huge problem.

They're on a quest to make justice as useless as possible this expansion.

Except you can buy epics 489(Better than Tier 14 lfr) with them when this releases. Meaning you really wont even need to touch Tier 14 content and you can leap to Throne and SoO content. Dunno how is that useless.

Except you can buy epics 489(Better than Tier 14 lfr) with them when this releases. Meaning you really wont even need to touch Tier 14 content and you can leap to Throne and SoO content. Dunno how is that useless.

The change to the Justice to Honor conversion is so dumb. So incredibly dumb. People are still going to convert Justice to Honor because the Honor gear is loads better than the gear on the Justice Vendor. If they want people to stop picking up PvP gear, give us something else to spend the JP on.

Also farming honor from bgs is a TERRIBLE grind all by itself. The justice point gains in dungeons are far smoother because well you complete dungeons more often than you win bgs (or at least that's been my experience). Their is np "lose" in dungeon grinding jp especially with how easy mist heroics are. This is an absurd change to fix a problem that bothered nobody.